Monthly Archives: August 2013

Posted inBreaking News, Civil Liberties, Policy Topics

IRS: LGBT couples who are married can file joint tax returns beginning next year

by Andrew Villeneuve

The Inter­nal Rev­enue Ser­vice announced today that in the wake of the Supreme Court’s late June deci­sion strik­ing down the poor­­ly-con­­ceived “Defense of Mar­riage Act”, Amer­i­can LGBT spous­es will be able to file joint or sep­a­rate tax returns as mar­ried cou­ples begin­ning next year, no mat­ter where they hap­pen to live. “Today’s rul­ing pro­vides cer­tain­ty and […]

Posted inCivil Liberties, Policy Topics

Department of Justice won’t sue to overturn I‑502, Washington’s law legalizing marijuana

by Andrew Villeneuve

The Unit­ed States Depart­ment of Jus­tice has decid­ed not to seek to over­turn Ini­tia­tive 502, the law approved by vot­ers last year that makes pos­ses­sion of small amounts of mar­i­jua­na in Wash­ing­ton legal. Gov­er­nor Jay Inslee announced the news this morn­ing in a joint state­ment with Attor­ney Gen­er­al Bob Fer­gu­son: Today we received con­fir­ma­tion Washington’s […]

Posted inPolicy Topics, Public Planning

Rodney Tom and Curtis King’s transportation “listening tour” doesn’t have a Seattle stop

by Andrew Villeneuve

The Wash­ing­ton State Sen­ate Repub­li­can cau­cus today unveiled a list of dates and loca­tions for the trans­porta­tion “lis­ten­ing tour” they’ve been promis­ing to hold since the end of the con­tentious leg­isla­tive ses­sion back at the begin­ning of the sum­mer. The “tour” will con­sist of sev­en pub­lic meet­ings — one each in Belle­vue, Van­cou­ver, Taco­ma, Spokane, […]

Posted inElections, Party Politics

Washington State Republicans elect Susan Hutchison to be their new chair through 2014

by Andrew Villeneuve

A suc­ces­sor to Kir­by Wilbur has been cho­sen: For­mer KIRO-TV anchor Susan Hutchi­son has been elect­ed as the new chair of the Wash­ing­ton State Repub­li­can Par­ty. At a meet­ing in Spokane Sat­ur­day after­noon, Hutchi­son defeat­ed the sit­ting inter­im GOP chair, Luanne Van Wer­ven in a runoff vote after two oth­er con­tenders were elim­i­nat­ed. (The final vote […]

Posted inMeta, Series & Special Reports

NPI’s (unconventional) newsgathering credo: Accuracy and context are more important than getting it first or getting it fast

by Ralph Gorin

Editor’s Note: This month and this week, NPI is cel­e­brat­ing its tenth anniver­sary. This is the third post in a sev­en-part series reflect­ing on NPI’s first decade. Each install­ment will be penned by one of NPI’s board mem­bers. I came to Wash­ing­ton in 1992, but I did­n’t become involved in pol­i­tics until 1999 when I […]

Posted inMeta, Series & Special Reports

Ready for a new decade: NPI to begin its next ten years with a capable, committed board

by Martin Chaney

Editor’s Note: This month and this week, NPI is cel­e­brat­ing its tenth anniver­sary. This is the sec­ond post in a sev­en-part series reflect­ing on NPI’s first decade. Each install­ment will be penned by one of NPI’s board mem­bers. NPI has come a long way in ten years.  I moved to Wash­ing­ton State in 1997, but […]

Posted inPolicy Topics, World Commmunity

Max Fisher’s “40 Maps” and the impact of framing on American politics and public policy

by Patrick Stickney

Over the past week, an info­graph­ic has been mak­ing its way around the inter­net called “40 maps that explain the world”, based off anoth­er web page which used the “40 maps” theme. Col­lect­ed by Max Fish­er of the Wash­ing­ton Post, it shows car­to­graph­i­cal depic­tions of any­thing from the four dif­fer­ent coun­tries a Russ­ian pro­fes­sor believes the United […]

Posted inMeta, Series & Special Reports

From opposition to proposition: NPI is working to make the defeat of Tim Eyman’s initiative factory a beginning — not an end

by Robert Cruickshank

Edi­tor’s Note: This month and this week, NPI is cel­e­brat­ing its tenth anniver­sary. This is the inau­gur­al post in a sev­en-part series reflect­ing on NPI’s first decade. Each install­ment will be penned by one of NPI’s board mem­bers.  As I reflect on NPI’s tenth anniver­sary, I find myself think­ing back to where we were as […]

Posted inElections

Felony charges filed against petitioner who submitted fraudulent signatures for Tim Eyman’s I‑1185 and R‑74 in 2012

by Andrew Villeneuve

A peti­tion­er who state elec­tions offi­cials dis­cov­ered had sub­mit­ted thou­sands of fraud­u­lent sig­na­tures last year for Tim Eyman’s Ini­tia­tive 1185 and for Ref­er­en­dum 74 (the unsuc­cess­ful bal­lot mea­sure to over­turn mar­riage equal­i­ty) is being pros­e­cut­ed by Sno­homish Coun­ty for com­mit­ting a felony, court records show. The Her­ald of Everett report­ed today that Julie A. Klein, […]

Posted inBreaking News, Elections

Matchup appears set in Seattle mayor’s race: It’ll be Ed Murray versus Mike McGinn

by Andrew Villeneuve

Win­now­ing elec­tion night is final­ly here. Sev­er­al weeks after vot­ing began, the dead­line to turn in bal­lots has arrived, and the first results are com­ing in. All eyes, fig­u­ra­tive­ly speak­ing, are on the state’s largest city, which has the elec­tion’s mar­quee race: a nine-way con­test for may­or. Only two of the nine will be mov­ing for­ward to […]

Posted inBreaking News, Media & Culture

Jeff Bezos agrees to buy The Washington Post and its other D.C. area papers for $250 million

by Andrew Villeneuve

Wow. Did­n’t see this com­ing: The Wash­ing­ton Post Com­pa­ny (NYSE: WPO) announced today that it has signed a con­tract to sell its news­pa­per pub­lish­ing busi­ness­es, includ­ing The Wash­ing­ton Post news­pa­per, to Jef­frey P. Bezos. The pur­chas­er is an enti­ty that belongs to Mr. Bezos in his indi­vid­ual capac­i­ty and is not Amazon.com, Inc. “Every­one at the Post Com­pa­ny and […]